Child pornography charges filed

State police filed felony charges Monday against a Jefferson Township man who allegedly downloaded and shared child pornography over the Internet.

Larry Keith Augustine, 56, of 415 Sharpnack Hollow Road, was charged with one count each of disseminating photos/film of child sex acts and child pornography.

According to the criminal complaint, a detective with the state police computer crimes unit found a computer on a network using ARES file sharing with a file, known to him to be child pornography from a previous investigation, available for download.

Detective Robert Erdely downloaded the file, which contained an IP address, and traced it to Augustine. According to Erdely, the image was of a naked pre-pubescent girl lying on what appeared to be a bed. He said he estimated her age to be roughly 10 years old. The girl was looking at the camera and her private parts were visible and directly facing the camera, Erdely said.

A search warrant was obtained and served on Augustine’s residence Feb. 16. A forensic examination was conducted on the items seized from it. According to the criminal complaint, a large number of images and videos of child pornography were recovered from the items taken from Augustine’s home. These images and videos included adults engaged in various sexual acts, including intercourse, with prepubescent children.

Erdely said a large number of the images and videos were archived by Augustine on optical media discs.

According to Erdely, Augustine was interviewed at his residence at the time of the search. Erdely said Augustine allegedly admitted to downloading and viewing files containing child pornography.